Railway coupling

ABSTRACT

A coupler head is modified from A.A.R. standards in that the upper surface of its anticreep ledge is inclined so as to prevent engagement thereof by the toggle of the locklift assembly as the lock drops toward its locked position.

United States Patent [1 1 Altherr Dec. 24, 1974 RAILWAY COUPLING Primar Examiner M. Henson Wood Jr. 7 I tzR llGor Althr,Mt, 5] men or e ge er uns er Assistant ExaminerGene A. Church Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Walter L. Schlegel [7 3] Assignee: Amsted Industries Incorporated,

Chicago, Ill.

[22] Filed: NOV. 29, 1973 57 ABSTRACT [21] Appl. No.: 420,005

A coupler head is modified from A.A.R. standards in that the upper surface of its anticreep ledge is inclined [2%] iLslll. 213/142li62ll3gl32 so as to prevent engagement thereof by the toggle of d the locklift assembly as the lock drops toward its le 0 earc locked position [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Metzger 213/146 X 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures RAILWAY COUPLING This invention involves modification of a standard railway coupler to provide for greater assurance of locking upon closure of the coupler knuckle. The disclosure herein is directed toward modification of a standard E coupler as established by the Association of American Railroads, (A.A.R.). However, it should be understood that the disclosure is applicable to other types of railway couplers. Such couplers are well known, and are disclosed in Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia, published by Simmons-Boardman, New York. Such couplers are disclosed in Metzger US. Pat. No. 2,866,560 issued Dec. 3, 1958, and Metzger application Ser. No. 359,713 filed May 14, 1973, and are incorporated herein by reference.

Upon closure of the Metzger coupler knuckle, the lock drops due to gravity to a locked position resting on the knuckle tail shelf and the knuckle thrower lock seat leg, and in that position prevents opening of the knuckle due to train forces. Recent investigation has determined that in some cases as a knuckle is closed, the lock, and its associated locklift assembly, may drop only partially toward the locked position due to engagement of the toggle of the locklift assembly with the anticreep ledge of the head.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a modified coupler which affords greater assurance of locking as the knuckle closes.

Another object of this invention is to provide a relationship between component surfaces of a coupler head and its associated locklift assembly which affords greater assurance of locking during the closing operation.

Still another object of this invention is to provide for modification of the anticreep ledge of a coupler head so that engagement thereof by the toggle of a locklift assembly during the closing operation is prevented, thereby assuring that the lock will drop fully to its locked position.

These and other objects of this invention will become clear to those skilled in the art upon examination of the disclosure herein including the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view, cut away to show the modified coupler in its locked position;

FIG. 2 is a partial side view, cut away to show details of a conventional anticreep ledge and toggle during the closing operation; and

FIG. 3 is a partial side view, cut away to show details of the modified anticreep ledge and toggle during the closing operation.

Turning now to the drawing in more detail, the modified coupler includes a head having lower front face 12 with an inner face 14 from which extends an anticreep ledge 16. Anticreep ledge 16 defines a lower surface 18 and, conventionally, an upper surface 20 (FIG. 2).

A knuckle 22 is supported by head 10 and pivotable about a pivot pin 24 between its thrown position (not shown) and its locked position (FIG. 1). Movable with knuckle 22 toward its locked position is a knuckle thrower 26.

A lock 28 is cooperatively associated with knuckle thrower 26 within head 10 in a conventional manner. In FIG. 1 the coupler is shown in its locked position, in which the knuckle shelf seat of lock 28 is seated on the knuckle tail shelf of knuckle 22 and the thrower seat of lock 28 is seated on the lock seat leg of knuckle thrower 26. A conventional locklift assembly, including a hook 29, a connector 30 defining an anticreep prong 32, and a toggle 34, is associated with head 10 and lock 28 in a conventional manner. Upon movement of the locklift assembly, lock 28 is moved from its locked position (FIG. 1) to its lockset position (not shown), wherein the lockset seat of lock 28 is seated upon the lock seat of leg of knuckle thrower 26. In a conventional manner knuckle 22 may then be thrown. It should be understood that the lock should be moved to its lockset position only when it is desired to throw the knuckle. In order to prevent inadvertent movement of this nature as a result of longitudinal shock under normal operating conditions, lower front face 12 acts as a stop for anticreep prong 32. Lower surface 18 of anticreep ledge 16 acts as a stop for the upper surface 36 of the anticreep shelf of toggle 34 to prevent uncoupling due to vertical shock force. Thus it will be seen that only deliberate movement of the locklift assembly will position lock 28 in its lockset position.

Upon closure, knuckle 22 moves pivotally about pivot pin 24, pivoting knuckle thrower 26 to cause its lock seat leg to move to the locking position (FIG. 1) in a conventional manner. At this time, lock 28 along with the locklift assembly should drop, as a result of gravitational forces, to the locked position (FIG. 1).

An analysis of the movement of lock 28 and its associated locklift assembly through the closing operation has determined that the lock occasionally fails to drop fully to the locked position (FIG. 1). Occasionally as lock 28 and its associated locklift assembly drop due to gravity, the lower surface 38 of the anticreep shelf of toggle 34 impinges upon upper surface 20 of anticreep ledge 16 and engages therewith as shown in FIG. 2. This engagement results from the frictional forces tending to retard movement of toggle 34 off of anticreep ledge 16.

In order to prevent this engagement, my invention involves modification of anticreep ledge 16 to reduce the frictional forces tending to retard or prevent movement of toggle 34 off of anticreep ledge 16. As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, the upper surface 38 of anticreep ledge 16 is tapered and inclined towards the vertical so as to reduce this tendency. In practice it has been found that an angle of inclination of with the vertical is preferable, and will reduce the coefficient of friction sufficiently without weakening anticreep ledge 16. However, it should be understood that any angle of inclination which so reduces these frictional forces is satisfactory. The point to be emphasized is that the shape of upper surface 38 and its inclination as represented by its angle with the vertical should be such that the frictional forces tending to engage toggle 34 on anticreep ledge 16 are too low, and engagement is not realized. Rather, the desired result, namely the sliding of toggle 34 off of anticreep ledge 16, is realized. As a result, lock 28 and its associated locklift assembly drop to the fully locked position as shown in FIG. 1.

Although the modification disclosed herein is slight, it has resulted in greatly improved locking characteristics upon closure of a knuckle. It should be understood that variations of the preferred form of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, which is limited only by the claims following.

I claim:

able with said lock toward its locked position; the improvement wherein said head includes an anticreep ledge having an inclined upper surface sloped at an angle of about 45 to reduce the frictional force tending to hold said toggle in engagement therewith when said toggle comes into contact with said upper surface during dropping of said lock toward its locked position.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO. 3,856 155 DATED December 24, 1974,

mvmromsw R. r

It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Signed and Scaled this Twenty-first f September 1976 [SEAL] A ttes t:

RUTH c. MASON C. MARSHALL DANN Arresting Officer Commissioner uj'Parents and Trademarks 

1. In a railway coupler comprising a head, a knuckle and knuckle thrower supported by said head for movement between thrown and locked positions, said knuckle thrower being movable with said knuckle toward their locked positions, a lock movable within said head between thrown, lockset and locked position, said lock being movable toward its locked position due to gravity, and a locklift assembly including a toggle for moving said lock toward its lockset position and movable with said lock toward its locked position; the improvement wherein said head includes an anticreep ledge havIng an inclined upper surface sloped at an angle of about 45* to reduce the frictional force tending to hold said toggle in engagement therewith when said toggle comes into contact with said upper surface during dropping of said lock toward its locked position. 